, 1887-11-19
pEcAs4sE or DRUNKENNESS.
VIA n Hospital Attendant Has Noticed.
Treatment of JImJam Cases.

a
Treatment of JimJam Cases.
at Is my belief" said a gentleman
who for the past six years has been In
attendance six nights out of the seven in
every week at the Chambers street hos
pital, THAT drunkenness is on the de
crease. There is enough of it left,
goodness knows, but there is surely less
than there used to be. Out Of the
~dispensary patients who five years ago
used to come here to be treated, it seemed
to me nearly half Of them were suffering
from alcoholism Of one kind or another.
They sat in a row OF the benches, wait.
ing their turn, and nearly every night
n or more of them leaped into tho
middle of the room with the jimjams,
and uttered q whoop that would send the
rest flying out of reach. That was SO
common then we thought nothing of it.
Now it rarely happens. l haven't seen
a jimjam case here this long time. /
don't believe it is too much to say that
we do not get half the alcohol cases we
used to. 1t certainly isn't because the
whisky is better. 1t is because there is
less of it drunk. 1t must be. The
whisky they sell in the dives along the
water front is loaded with jimjams to
the very muzzle. If there was as much
of it drunk as there used to be there
would be just as many jimjam cases. /
think the bum must load up pretty reg
ularly now with stale beer. That only
makes the most of them soggy.
"Yet with the decrease in the number
of alcoholic cases treated, there has been
an enormous increase in the number of
patients who nave been cared for here.
We have now turned our twentieth thou
sand for the year 1887, and there are
nearly three months of the year left.
This is several hundred more than we
treated in all last year. Last year the
total number treated was 1887; the
year before that 1S, 1872. In 1884 Sc
almost doubled over the number treated
in 1882. In 1882 we treated 1868, and
in 1884 10, $50. 1t is not increase of
population, of course, which has done
this; it is increase in the popularity of
b hospital. 1t has become known that
surgical cases, to which this hospital is
devoted, are treated instantly. When a
man is hurt and brought here, he will
tEd a surgeon ready for him and will
receive immediate attention.
"As to the jimjam cases L was speak
ing of, we only treat them temporarily.
and then, if they are bad, send them eli
to Bellevue. We of course nave to send
to other hospitals all cases requiring long
nursing and attendance-that is, when
he patient Is able to be moved. Our
accommodations are limited here, and
we would be swamped otherwise, and
have no room or time to accommodate
those who are hurt and must be attended
10 at once. When a jimjam case turns
mp we have a mixture which we give.
and if that fails and the patient is really
in for it, we get him quiet and then send
MIN where they are prepared to handle
such cases. 1t very often happens that a
a will come in shaking all over, and
With the horrors after him, and thinking
ne is right on the verge, when he isn't
We give him some of the mixture, and
ell him to come back for more if he get.
lfraid again that they are coming on.
IN many cases they do not come back for
nore than the second dose, and that gen
rally tides them over that particular
ime. But, ds | said. we don't see more
han half the number of these cases VIC
ised to. If it isn't temperance it is stale
)eer. But 1 think there is much less
crazy drinking than there used to be. -
New York Sun.